In this edition of TPR News: Tax debate begins; the DPJ wants the ASDF out of Iraq; the Chinese Navy visits Japan, but doesn’t get to see an Aegis destroyer; China and Japan pull off their largest high-level meeting ever; Historians say the Japanese Imperial Army ordered suicides in Okinawa; McDonald’s has a food scandal; the 2008 Michelin Guide to Tokyo sells out; PlayStation 3 outsells Wii for the first time; and taxi fares go up.

Politics

Social Democratic Party chief Mizuho Fukushima began and ended her reelection campaign by being the only candidate to register for the intraparty presidential election last Monday. She officially won a third term the next day with the endorsement of nine of the eleven other SDP Diet members.

Also last Monday, the LDP’s tax panel began debate on fiscal 2008 tax reform with the goal of being able to present a set of proposals by December 13th, after consulting with coalition partner New Komeito’s tax panel.

On Wednesday, the DPJ-controlled House of Councillors approved a bill calling for the withdrawal of the Air Self Defense Forces from Iraq, saying the ASDF mission was merely a gesture to show support for the United States. The ASDF mission, based in Kuwait, was approved in the same July 2003 bill as the Ground Self-Defense Forces mission that was ended in July 2006.

The bill is likely to be scrapped or shot down by the LDP-dominated House of Representatives.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Luhai-class missile destroyer Shenzen docked at Tokyo’s Harumi wharf for four days last week, marking the first time a Chinese warship has visited Japan since the PLA was founded in 1947.

The crew of the Shenzen was originally slated to tour the Maritime Self Defense Forces’ Aegis missile destroyer Kirishima, but was instead shown the supply ship Tokiwa - recently returned from the refueling mission in the Indian Ocean - due to Defense Ministry concerns over upsetting the United States by showing off a high-tech ship so shortly after the MSDF had worried the US with sloppy handling of Aegis-related secrets that were believed to have been leaked to China.

Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that he hadn’t heard the original plan was to show the Chinese sailors the Kirishima, that he hadn’t heard of such plans being canceled due to American protests, and that he simply didn’t know whether or not it would be appropriate to show an Aegis destroyer to the Chinese Navy.

In other groundbreaking news for Sino-Japanese relations, the largest contingents of Cabinet-level ministers since Japan and China resumed diplomatic relations 35 years ago met in Beijing last weekend. Despite bringing up the issue with his Chinese counterpart and with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura was unable to make progress on the issue of greatest importance to Japan: gas exploration in the East China Sea.

The two countries did agree, though, that their respective economies were in a “win-win” situation and to cooperate on food safety and a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions beyond the expiration of the Kyoto protocol in 2012.

The Japanese Imperial Army “forced and steered” civilians to commit mass suicide during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, according to a statement made by Kanto Gakuin University Professor Hirofumi Hayashi last Tuesday.

Professor Hayashi’s statement to the Textbook Authorization Council was made in response to a request from the Council that he solicit and collect the opinions of historical researchers in his advisory role to the Council and, by extension, the Ministry of Education. The Council is considering reinstating references to the Imperial Army’s role in mass suicides in Okinawa after tens of thousands of Okinawans protested the Ministry’s whitewashing of history textbooks. The rally was the largest since Okinawa reverted to Japanese control in 1972.

Hayashi delivered his statement to the press before the Council had come to a conclusion about references to mass suicides in part because he thinks the secrecy of the textbook screening process drives much of the consistent controversy surrounding wartime issues and because he felt the Council had misinterpreted statements made by himself and other researchers and used its warped and erroneous interpretations to justify the whitewashing.

Specifically, the Council had latched onto a statement from Hayashi’s 2001 book on the Battle of Okinawa, in which he said the military did not directly order people to commit suicide and used it to deny military involvement in the suicides. In his statement to the Council and to the press, Hayashi made it clear that mas suicides occurred on Zamami Island at the military’s instigation and under military orders. His view is shared by a number of Japanese historians and Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe, as well as by the majority of Okinawans, especially the families and survivors of those who committed suicide under military orders.

Education Minister Kisaburo Tokai refrained from commenting in order to allow the Council to work in a calm atmosphere.

The biggest political story of the past few weeks has, without a doubt, been the ongoing investigation into the scandal involving former high-ranking Defense Agency official and Defense Vice Minister Takemasa Moriya’s improper relationship with an executive from defense contractor Yamada Co. and Nihon Mirise and the arrest of the involved parties. Because the story requires more time and space than we can devote to it in regular editions of TPR News, we are working on a special edition of TPR News devoted to the issue. Look for that to come soon.

Business and the Economy

Employees of four McDonald’s restaurants in Western Tokyo run by the same franchisee admitted they had instructed subordinates to mislabel salads, sliced tomatoes, yogurt, and milkshake ingredients.

The McDonald’s incident, though, is on a much smaller scale than other recent food scandals in Japan, as the mislabeled items were generally sold only one day late and were late by McDonald’s relatively stringent standards, which require, among other things, that salads be sold within twelve hours of having been made. The company immediately admitted the lapses and responded by taking direct control of the four restaurants in question.

In November, Sony’s PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo’s Wii console for the first time in Japan, it has been reported by Enterbrain. The market research firm attributed the PS3’s higher sales to price cuts and the availability of more software for the platform. Globally, Sony’s Playstation 3 still lags well behind the Wii and Microsoft’s XBox 360.

The Statistics Bureau released its round of reports last week, and told us that Household spending was up 0.6% in October against a year ago, unemployment was even at 4.0 percent, and that the consumer price index had increased 1.0 percent in October. The consumer price index increase was the first seen this year, and came on the back of higher oil prices. Household spending was increased on education spending and higher household utility bills.

It did not take long for the much-hyped 2008 Tokyo edition of Michelin’s restaurant guide to sell out. Michelin’s first guide covering a city in Asia flew off the shelves in two days, and granted 8 coveted three star rankings to dining establishments in Tokyo. In all, the reviewers named 8 three star, 25 two star and 117 one star restaurants in Tokyo. This compares to 39 restaurants with at least one star in New York, and 64 in Paris. The Asahi quoted Toyoo Tamamura, 62, an essayist well-versed in French food culture as saying, “The quality of Tokyo cuisine is higher than in Paris.”

According to Bloomberg, Nomura, which is Japan’s largest securities firm, is set to double the number of analysts and fund managers who are focused on Asian equities - from 17 to 33. This move comes following the closing of unprofitable US businesses. Exposure to subprime-related investments in the US caused Nomura to post its first quarterly losses in four years in October.

And finally, higher taxi fares went into effect in Tokyo and Kanagawa for the first time in ten years on Monday. The minimum fare for the first two kilometers has been hiked from 660 to 710 yen. According to the Kyodo News Agency, the fare increases were approved in an attempt to improve the working conditions of taxi drivers, whose salaries have not budged in five years.

Society

What’s off limits to marketing? Apparently not elections. Aeon Co., Japan’s largest retailer has proposed setting up polling places in shopping malls and stores - its own, of course. The idea is that the polling places will draw customers and that the location will increase voter turnout. It doesn’t take a hardcore cynic to think that the latter is far more likely.

“Tora, tora, tora!” Those words are known by anyone with even the most glancing familiarity with the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941. What is less widely known is that they were a code meaning the Japanese pilots had achieved their goal: complete surprise.

What is far less widely known is that they were transmitted by Lieutenant Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who led the attack, then reported to the Showa Emperor.

Fuchida died in May 1976, leaving memoirs he’d written over his last eight years with his son. For three decades, his son, who lives in the US, held onto the documents and kept them secret. Two years ago, though, he showed them to a documentary maker, who started putting them in order.

The manuscript shows that the Emperor was fascinated by Fuchida’s photos of the attacks and that rivalries between officers affected tactical decisions.

Listen Now:

 TPR News 12/03/07: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download